I don't think you're waiting long enough. High gravity belgians reward those who wait. Anthing over 1.060 should have plenty of belgian character using 3787 Westmalle yeast. I pitch at 62, hold at 64 for 2 days, and then ramp up to 70 over the next 6 days for my belgians. And pitch proper amounts of yeast/aerate at pitch. Plenty of belgian character, but it may not show up until 3-6 months in the bottle. The tastes really keep evolving as it sits in the bottle. After 18 months, my first batch is heavenly. Only 6 left however.

Best advice is to get a pipeline going for Belgians. The first year sucks as you have nothing to drink. But then you just need to keep brewing at an equal rate of consumption after that.

Good post. Most brews can be drunk as soon as they are carbonated. Belgians are drinkable young but truely develop their true flavor with time in the bottles. It can take months for the flavors to really kick in. I have a good pipeline of Belgians that continue to change with age. It seems about 4 months is the points where they really begin to shine.

I would assume that the filtering of the old primary yeast does not remove the yeast character. That the yeast character in these beers is not created from the dosing of the yeast at bottling it is created during primary fermentation. Is this a correct statement?

They don't always filter. Some places filter, some centrifuge, some cold crash, some use clarifying agents. I don't know enough of the various outcomes to tell you what happens with each, but each option has some degree of negative outcomes to the final product.

The yeast character is primarily a result of initial fermentation. The bottle conditioning can be done for, a. tradition, b. carbonation, c. character and flavor development, d. as a sales pitch, e. shelf life / product stability, f. some or all of the above.

I usually place my belgians in the fridge for a couple of weeks before I consume them anyway. So there is little to no yeast left in suspension. Those that have sat for 9-12 months are crystal clear anyway.